Cremation rates vary widely across the world.[1] As of 2019, international statistics report that countries with large Buddhist and Hindu populations like Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand and India have a cremation rate ranging from 80% to 99%, while Roman Catholic majority-countries like Italy, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, and Portugal report much lower rates.[1] Factors include both culture and religion; for example, the cremation rate in Muslim-, Eastern Orthodox–, Oriental Orthodox–, and Roman Catholic–majority countries is much lower due to religious sanctions on the practice of cremation, whereas for Hindu-, Jain-, and Buddhist-majority countries the cremation rate is much higher.[1] However, economic factors such as cemetery fees, prices on coffins and funerals greatly impel towards the choice of cremation.
Cremation is still considered taboo in Zimbabwe, but the practice is not forbidden. The Bulawayo City Council, the second largest city in the country, planned mandatory cremation for those that died before the age of 25. However, this plan was cancelled after many protests from Pentecostal Christian groups.
The rate of cremation is about 12% in Cape Town, which has a significant White population, but it is lower in other parts of the country.[2]
There is a crematorium in Accra, the capital of Ghana, but the cremation rate is low. Pentecostal Christians, which constitute the largest religious group in the country, are officially against cremation.
Nairobi has the only crematorium in Kenya. Since Kenya is a Christian-majority country, the opposition against cremation largely derives from Christian beliefs about the practice.
Cremation is legal in the Lagos State of Nigeria.
The People's Republic of China reported 4,534,000 cremations out of 9,348,453 deaths (a 48.50% rate) in 2008.[3] The cremation rate was 45.6% for 2014, according to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs.[4]
Almost all people in India adhering to Hinduism (79.8%), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%) and Jainism (0.4%) - as well as half of India's 2.3% Christians - choose cremation as the method for disposing of the dead. However, with 14.2% of the population being Muslims (for whom cremation is not allowed) and with the many Christians and indigenous tribes who also prefer burial, the cremation rate in India is about 80% (Estimated in 2014).[5]
Japan has one of the highest cremation rates in the world, with the country reporting a cremation rate of 99.97% in 2019.[1] [6]
Almost everyone adhering to Hinduism and Buddhism cremates their dead, which makes Nepal one of the countries with the highest rate of cremation. The rate of cremation is around 95%.
Given its tiny land area, Singapore has one of the highest cremation rates in the world, reporting a cremation rate of 80.54% in 2018.[7]
South Korea had the cremation rate of 92.1% in 2022. It is increasing as people born later are more likely to be cremated. About 94% of those under the age of 60 were cremated, with 99% of those in their 20s being cremated in 2014.[8]
Taiwan has one of the highest cremation rates in the world, according to information from Ministry of Interior, the cremation rate was 92.47% in 2013, 144,162 of the 155,908 deaths that year.[9] [10]
The cremation rate in the United Kingdom has been increasing steadily since the early 20th century, after having begun to accelerate in the 1930s. The national average rate was 0.07% in 1900, 0.15% in 1910, 0.24% in 1920, 0.87% in 1930, 3.85% in 1940, 15.59% in 1950, 34.70% in 1960, 55.41% in 1970, 65.26% in 1980, 69.58% in 1990, 71.51% in 2000, 73.13% in 2010, 78.46% in 2020, and 79.83% in 2022.[11]
Cremations are most common in England and Wales, while still uncommon in Northern Ireland. The 2022 cremation rate was 82.40% for England and Wales, 71.66% for Scotland and only 23.00% for Northern Ireland.[11]
Cremation rates in the Nordic countries vary, but have increased significantly since the 1940s. In 2022, the cremation rate in Denmark was 86.8%,[12] in Sweden 82.9%,[12] in Finland 62.4%,[12] in Norway 47.9%,[12] and in Iceland 41.6%.[12]
The first cremation in the Netherlands was performed in 1914. In the hundred years since the cremation rate has risen to 63% in 2014.[13]
The cremation rate in Flanders has increased from a little over 50% in 2010 to 74% in 2020.[14]
Cremation remains a minority practice in rural France where burial places are available, but is increasingly common in urban areas. In 1979 just 1% of funerals involved cremation: in 2012 it was 32%, rising to 45% in Paris.[15]
Bulgaria has one of the lowest cremation rates in the world, reporting a cremation rate of 6.76% in 2021.[16]
Greece has one of the lowest cremation rates in the world, reporting a cremation rate of 2% in 2021.[17] [18]
Cremation has been on the increase in Ireland in the last decade. This is largely due to both the expense of burial plots and their (lack of) availability. In 2017, almost 20% of deaths in Ireland involved cremation.[19] There are five crematoria in Ireland, three of which are located in Dublin (Glasnevin (the first facility of its type in Ireland, established in 1982), Newland's Cross, Harold's Cross), one in Cavan[20] and one in Cork. However, access to these cremation facilities is not restricted to people living in Dublin or Cork. Anyone may arrange for a cremation to take place in any of these crematoria.[21] Another crematorium opened in Shannon in 2017.
Cremations are booming in Spain: in 2006, just 16% of deaths involved cremation, but by 2016 that figure had risen to 36%.[22] Around half of all deceased are cremated in Barcelona.[23] In 2019, the total number of deaths was 417,000, of which 44% were cremated.
The first crematorium in Portugal opened in 1925, but was closed in 1936. In 1985, it was reopened. Currently (2018 data), 20% of the deceased in Portugal are cremated. In 2005 that figure only reached 4.2%. In the country's capital, Lisbon, the number of incinerations reaches 54%.
Cremation recently became more popular than burial in Hungary: in 1996, the cremation rate was 27%,[24] and in 2016, it was around 60%, with 70–90% in Budapest.[25]
The first crematorium in Russia was built in Vladivostok in 1917, primarily for the cremations of Japanese people, who had a big population in this city. Later, the Donskoy crematorium was built in Moscow in 1927 and remained the only crematorium in the USSR until 1972, when the Nikolo-Archangelskiy crematorium in Moscow was commissioned. In 2021, there are 27 crematoriums in Russia.
The highest rate of cremations is in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg at about 50–70% of all deaths. In other large cities it is 20–25%, while the total cremation rate in Russia is about 10%.[26] The reason for such a low prevalence of cremation is influenced by religious beliefs: the Russian Orthodox Church has a negative attitude towards cremation and both Islam and Orthodox Judaism prohibits it.
The cremation rate in Canada has been increasing steadily with the national average rate rising from 5.9% in 1970 to 68.4% in 2009.[27] [28] The rates vary greatly among the provinces with the most recent (1999) province level statistics showing that British Columbia had the highest rate at 74% while Prince Edward Island had the lowest rate at 8.5%.[29]
The projected Canadian rates for 2010:
| Rank | align=center | Jurisdiction ! | Rate (%)[30] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | align=left | 65.0%+ | ||
| 1 | align=left | 77.0% | ||
| 2 | align=left | 65.0% | ||
| 2 | align=left | 65.0% | ||
| 2 | align=left | 65.0% | ||
| 2 | align=left | 65.0% | ||
| 6 | align=left | 63.1% | ||
| 7 | align=left | 56.6% | ||
| 8 | align=left | 43.2% | ||
| 9 | align=left | 42.5% | ||
| 10 | align=left | 33.3% | ||
| align=left | N/A | |||
| align=left | N/A | |||
| align=left | N/A |
The cremation rate in the United States has been increasing steadily, with the national average rate rising from 3.56% in 1960 to 53.1% in 2018. Projections from the Cremation Association of North America forecast a rate of 59.4% in 2023.[31] [32] The rates vary considerably among the states with the highest rates (over 70%) being reported in the Western United States with the lowest rates (under 30%) being reported in the Southern United States.[33]
A survey by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council found that Americans increasingly choose cremation for the cost savings. In 1990, 19% reported this motivation; in 2010, one-third reported this motivation.[34]
The following table lists the 2014 cremation rate for each state and the District of Columbia including the national average.
| Rank | align=center | Jurisdiction ! | Rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | align=left | 47.0% | ||
| 1 | align=left | 75.9% | ||
| 2 | align=left | 75.2% | ||
| 3 | align=left | 73.9% | ||
| 4 | align=left | 72.6% | ||
| 5 | align=left | 71.2% | ||
| 6 | align=left | 68.7% | ||
| 7 | align=left | 68.6% | ||
| 8 | align=left | 68.0% | ||
| 9 | align=left | 66.4% | ||
| 10 | align=left | 65.8% | ||
| 11 | align=left | 65.8% | ||
| 12 | align=left | 65.5% | ||
| 13 | align=left | 62.7% | ||
| 14 | align=left | 61.6% | ||
| 15 | align=left | 59.0% | ||
| 16 | align=left | 57.8% | ||
| 17 | align=left | 57.0% | ||
| 18 | align=left | 54.4% | ||
| 19 | align=left | Wisconsin | 52.4% | |
| 20 | align=left | 51.3% | ||
| 21 | align=left | 45.2% | ||
| 22 | align=left | 45.2% | ||
| 23 | align=left | 43.1% | ||
| 24 | align=left | 42.9% | ||
| 25 | align=left | 42.6% | ||
| 26 | align=left | 42.5% | ||
| 27 | align=left | 42.3% | ||
| 28 | align=left | 41.7% | ||
| 29 | align=left | 41.3% | ||
| 30 | align=left | 41.2% | ||
| 31 | align=left | 41.0% | ||
| 32 | align=left | 40.1% | ||
| 33 | align=left | 39.6% | ||
| 34 | align=left | 39.5% | ||
| 35 | align=left | 39.0% | ||
| 36 | align=left | 38.9% | ||
| 37 | align=left | 38.5% | ||
| 38 | align=left | 38.1% | ||
| 39 | align=left | 37.9% | ||
| 40 | align=left | 37.8% | ||
| 41 | align=left | 36.9% | ||
| 42 | align=left | 36.7% | ||
| 43 | align=left | 35.9% | ||
| 44 | align=left | 34.0% | ||
| 45 | align=left | 30.4% | ||
| 46 | align=left | 30.3% | ||
| 47 | align=left | 29.7% | ||
| 48 | align=left | 27.6% | ||
| 49 | align=left | 24.6% | ||
| 50 | align=left | 22.9% | ||
| 51 | align=left | 19.7% |
The National Funeral Directors Association had a slightly different national cremation rate in the United States, reporting a 2016 rate of 50.2%, with this expecting to increase to 63.8% by 2025 and 78.8% in 2035.[35]
Cremation rates vary from 2.16% in Colombia to 25.41% in Argentina.[36] [37]
The Cremation Society (UK) states that the cremation rate in Australia in 2018 was slightly over 69% of all deaths, whereas New Zealand's rate is slightly higher than Australia's, with a cremation rate in 2018 of 75% of all deaths.[38] [39]